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Wholehearted
Thanks
By Steve Brandon, November 2003 The holiday season is fast approaching. It begins with a season of giving thanks and ends with a season of adoring our Savior. I ask you, "will you give wholehearted thanks to God during this holiday season?" There is a tendency within all of us to give thanks to God when circumstances change for the better. Yet, when God continues His blessing upon us, our tendency is to forget His continued kindness to us. We often think His blessings are something we deserve and fail to praise God for His faithful blessings to us. On the other hand, when difficult circumstances come in our lives, we often find it difficult to praise the Lord. Our circumstances can swallow our joy. Yet, even then, the Bible tells us to "rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:17-18). "Always" never ends; "without ceasing" doesn’t stop; and "in everything" has no exceptions. This past year, I have read of several men who have challenged my own attitude of thanks to God in every circumstance. These men faced tremendous difficulties, yet they found reason to rejoice as they remained steadfast in their trust in God. I want you to consider these examples, that you might give wholehearted thanks to God during this holiday season. David Brainerd This past summer, many of the men of this church engaged in reading The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. His life was one of difficulty and hardship. He was sick for much of his life, dying at the age of 29 in 1747 of tuberculosis, an incredibly painful disease. He chose a hard life of rural living, where he could preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to idolatrous Indians in the early American colonies. He was lonely. His diet was meager. His lodging was poor. His work was difficult. And, to make matters worse, he lacked assurance of God’s comforting presence. At one point he wrote in his diary a description of his difficulties, "my circumstances are such, that I have no comfort of any kind but what I have in God. I live in the most lonesome wilderness; have but one single person to converse with, that can speak English. ... I live poorly with regard to the comforts of life. Most of my diet consists of boiled corn, hasty-pudding, etc. I lodge on a bundle of straw, my labor is hard and extremely difficult, and I have little appearance of success, to comfort me. ... But that which makes all my difficulties grievous to be borne is that God hides His face from me" (May 18, 1743). One could easily be led to think that David Brainerd could have resented his circumstances. He could have quit his calling as a missionary. Yet, he didn’t. Through it all, Brainerd had an unwavering resolve to serve his master with gladness. On one particular occasion he had been traveling much and had spent a few weeks in great pain, thinking himself to be near death. When he finally arrived back at his lodging among the Indians, he wrote, "I presently fell of my knees and blessed God for my safe return after a long and tedious journey, and a season of sickness in several places where I had been, and after I had been ill myself. God has renewed His kindness to me, in preserving me one journey more. I have taken many considerable journeys since this time last year, and yet God has never suffered one of my bones to be broken, or any distressing calamity to befall me, excepting the ill turn I had in my last journey. I have been often exposed to cold and hunger in the wilderness where the comforts of life were not to be had; have frequently been lost in the woods; and sometimes obliged to ride much of the night; and once lay out in the woods all night. Yet, blessed be God, He has preserved me!" (October 4, 1743). Paul The apostle Paul was thrown in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ. Paul certainly didn’t enjoy these difficult times, yet, his perspective of the situation gave him reason to give thanks to God. He rejoiced that his circumstances were the means that God used to bring the gospel to the whole praetorian guard and beyond (Phil. 1:12-13). Additionally, it was his imprisonment that gave others more boldness to preach the gospel without fear (Phil. 1:14). It is our view of God’s grand purpose in our life that can give us great joy, even when the difficulties in life appear overwhelming. Job James tells us to consider the endurance of Job to see how God was full of compassion and merciful to him (James 5:11). Job was afflicted in great ways. In one day he lost all of his wealth and all of his children. To this he replied, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21). Soon afterwards, Job lost his health and the support of his wife who advised him to "curse God and die!" (Job. 2:9). His three friends who came to comfort were hardly a help. Yet, in all of these difficulties, Job pledged, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (Job. 13:15). We have much to learn from such an unwavering commitment to trust God, even in difficult circumstances. Matthew Henry One evening on the way home from his office, Matthew Henry, an 18th century pastor who wrote a commentary on the entire Bible, was robbed while walking down the street. The thieves took everything of value. Before going to bed, he wrote in his diary, "Let me be thankful, first, because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed." Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe wrote the classic novel, "Robinson Crusoe," which describe the events of a man who had rejected Jesus Christ and had found himself marooned upon an island as a result of his rebellion against God. In chapter 7, Defoe describes how Robinson Crusoe evaluated his situation, "I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing; not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like to have but few heirs, as to deliver my thoughts from daily pouring upon them; and afflicting my mind. And as my reason began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case from worse; and I stated it very impartially, like a debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:
Though
Robinson Crusoe was a fictional character, his concluding remarks have
much to teach us, "Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony,
that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there
was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it;
and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in
it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set in the description
of good and evil on the credit side of the account." |